i wanted a loop hike, and since the pachaug trail doesn’t really lend itself to loop hikes, i added in various mountain bike paths and old woods roads to make it a loop, with predictably mixed results. the blue-blazed pachaug trail through here is rugged and beautiful, the rest not so much. but not bad overall. just kind of hard to follow in places.

dog violet

the wildflowers have started appearing, finally, in the woods around here. this is a dog violet, identifiable by the little white fringe on the side petals.

round-leaved yellow violet

and i came across a whole huge patch of these. they are tiny, and i didn’t even notice them at first. then, when i saw one, suddenly i saw hundreds. in my defense, this was on a stretch of the pachaug trail that was littered with blow-downs, and i kind of had lost the blazes at this point. in fact, i may not have ever found them again without my trusty gps with the 24k topo maps loaded in, which, fortunately, include the pachaug trail.

pachaug trail

here is a shot of the trail. it goes through some old hemlock groves and up and down some rocky ridges. nothing i couldn’t handle, but a workout. i have included this hike in the hikefinder, and made my own map to go with.